July 18, 2014–Malaysia Airlines Plane With 295 Aboard Crashes in Ukraine: A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 295 people aboard crashed and burned on Thursday in an eastern Ukraine wheat field near the Russian border, an area roiled by fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian officials called the crash an act of terrorism and said the plane might have been shot down by a Russian-made antiaircraft system.

Ukraine’s president, Petro O. Poroshenko, said in a statement that he was calling for an immediate investigation of the crash of the plane, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Amsterdam. There were no reported survivors among the 280 passengers and 15 crew members.

Mr. Poroshenko said he had called the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, to express his condolences and invite Dutch experts to assist in the investigation. “I would like to note that we are calling this not an incident, not a catastrophe, but a terrorist act,” Mr. Poroshenko said.

Reporters arriving at the scene near the town of Grabovo described dozens of lifeless bodies strewn about, mostly intact, in a field dotted with purple flowers, with remnants of the plane scattered across a road lined with fire engines and emergency vehicles. “It fell down in pieces,” said one rescue worker as tents were set up to gather the dead.